The dentist asked her daughter if she wanted to sit in the “special princess throne.”She then goes on about other times the princess label has been put on her daughter and about her frustrations with these situations. Then, her daughter asks what’s wrong with princesses? She makes references to real life princesses, and also she talked about the princess trend that has swept across the nation. She states her strong feminist beliefs and questions “what playing Little Mermaid is teaching her [daughter] (Orenstein 671).” She then briefly acknowledges the counterargument and moves on to discussing the start and instant success of Disney’s princess products. She quotes the founder of the princess products, Andy Mooney, when he says that boys pass through phases and so will girls with the princess phase.
Lieberman’s point is that fairy tales make beauty the basis for which reward is given, not intelligence, work ethic, or anything else a radical feminist would see as an asset. Lieberman also stresses that in popular fairy tales, beauty is associated with being kind and well-tempered whereas ugliness is associated with being ill-tempered and often jealous. This can be easily shown in one of the most popular fairy tales of all—Cinderella. In this, Lieberman argues, Cinderella is oppressed by her cruel, ugly stepsisters and stepmother who force the kind, beautiful girl to do all the chores in the house. Cinderella ends up getting the prize (marriage to the prince) based on looks alone.
The fact that most fail to realize, as pointed by the author, is that these two mothers want the same things: they both want the best future for their daughters, and both mothers are willing to do anything to ensure that it happens. It is, however, Cinderella’s mother who surpasses and comes in first place. Panttaja believes Cinderella succeeds in winning the prince’s hand at the ball not because of the goodness of her character, but because she was able to stay loyal to her mother. By doing this her mother rewards her by giving her the most beautiful appearance in the entire kingdom. Cinderella succeeds through her mother’s magic, deceit, lies, and disguises.
In this story Panttaja says it is both mothers that are wicked. Panttaja states the real mother “plots and schemes, and she wins” (Panttaja 660) when it comes to fulfilling the wishes of Ashputtle. But actually the two mothers have the same goal in mind; to have their daughters married off and have a joyful life. To be able to do this, the real mother puts a charm on the prince to make him fall in love with Ashputtle instead of anyone else. The prince did not dance with anyone else all night and would always say “she is my partner” (Grimm 630).
It all begins with a young girl being born into the world of judgment. Children believe everything they are told. If they are told they are beautiful, they will believe it until someone tells them otherwise. Young girls are impressionable by their mother’s and female counter part’s actions, such as wearing fancy clothes and putting on make-up. In the poem, the speaker states the girlchild has “wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” (4), showing that she already wants to alter her appearance.
Growing up, I thought my mother looked just like Cinderella and had the same pretty voice. I was excited to watch this movie again, with my daughter, because I thought it would bring me back to my childhood. I must admit that while watching it for absolutely different reasons, and taking notes, it was hard to enjoy it as much. Without immediately referring to the sheer passivity of the heroine, Cinderella, I’ve found that this story not only gender-stereotypes, but sets societal norms right out there on the table for you, and agrees and supports every one of them. Cinderella is not the role model I want for my daughter.
Lakisha Slaughter September 16, 2013 English 102 Dr. Fierce In the article “What’s wrong with Cinderella” Peggy Orenstein’s views are that of a mother and of a feminist. Orenstein raised several concerns regarding the mental and physical control brought upon the younger generation in which she contradicts herself and assign blame. The writer claims that the princess-themed commercial products have distressing effects in shaping young female generations’ outlooks as well as their qualities. Orenstein uses her daughter as the example in the article.
21 Aug. 2006. 2 June 2009 This source discusses the anger of beauty pageants. Beauty pageants promote the sexualization of young girls and provide to those involved in pedophilia. Parents are the ones who are at fault for exposing and subjecting their daughters to the sexual use of beauty pageantry. I’m going to use this info to prove that Beauty pageants aren’t just for fun and games, that there child could be in danger .
To make her argument more effective, she talks about a woman named Mary Finucane and her person experience with her daughter. She also uses statistics and similar studies on her topic. Using subtitles made the reading more understandable and easier to follow. This article and argument provides evidence on how young girls are acting older than they should and how they reduce this problem. Hane’s starts her article by talking about Mary Finucane and how she noticed a change in the way her daughter acted after she discovered Disney princesses.
Indeed today, beauty pageants for young girls are becoming more and more popular. However, I believe that young girls should not be allowed to participate and join beauty pageants because it affects their overall well-being in a negative way. First, these child beauty pageants damage the young girls psychologically and physically. A lot of child advocates and psychologists have already spoken out against child beauty pageants and claim that these pageants are not really helpful for healthy child development. According to William Pinsof, a clinical psychologist and president of the Family Institute at Northwestern University, “Being a little Barbie doll says your body has to be a certain way and your hair has to be a certain way.